Thursday, January 22, 2015

GTA V - a Cultural Analysis

GTA V, one of the fastest selling video games of all time, has grossed over a billion dollars, and is available to virtually anyone who has bought a console in the past 10 years. If you own a PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, an Xbox One, or a PC (coming soon), $59.99 will buy you access to inaccurate portrayals of most major races.

The game's developer, Rockstar North, exaggerates stereotypes to a degree that most intelligent people will understand it is satire. GTA portrays African Americans as street gang scum. Driving around the virtual city of Los Santos, African American pedestrians are rarely found anywhere except for the slummy urban part of the map. In story mode, every mission involving African Americans other than Franklin, one of the three main characters, involves street violence and/or illegal drugs. The ignorance with which these African Americans act in the game is so noticeable that one can hardly call it anything else than satire. Rockstar not only pokes fun at black stereotypes, but also White, Mexican, and Asian stereotypes. Two of the three main characters are white, one being from the suburbs, and one who is portrayed as a desert-inhabiting redneck meth dealer. The suburbanite white man is named Michael. His wife flirts sexually with her private yoga teacher, and is frequently touched inappropriately by her private tennis coach. His daughter is a wannabe prostitute, and his son a lazy bum. The manner in which they act is also exaggerated, acting with the same level of ignorance as the blacks within the game.

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